My summary of Jude

Hello, here are my answers to the 8 questions posed to us for our conclusion of Jude.

1. What Title would you give to this book?

Jude's letter of warning and exhortation

2. What is the major Theme and sub-themes (or subjects) the book covers?

Caution against licentiousness, caution against false teachers, a call to believers to build themselves up in the faith and to contend earnestly for it

3. What is the key Verse from Jude?

I feel that it is v20 "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit."

4. How would you Outline the book?

Verse 1-2 (Introduction and salutations)

Verse 3-4 (Major theme of contending for the faith and watching out for false teachers introduced)

Verse 5-7 (Historical examples of rebellion and sin against God)

Verse 8-16 (Direct condemnation of the false believers and apostates and reminders of their future judgment)

Verse 17-21 (Exhortation to keep to the true tenets of the faith and to hold fast until the coming of the Lord)

Verse 22-23 (Instructions on how to deal with the 3 classes of brothers involved in apostasy)

Verse 24-25 (Doxology : Can't think of a better word that can better express the intentions of this passage :p)

Question 5 :

My summary statement revolves around two words, Faith, and Apostasy

Always endeavour to build myself up in, keep myself in, and contend for the Faith, while watching out for the false teachers, their teachings that pupport to be spiritual but are actually fruitless and pervert grace into licentiousness, and the evidence in their lives that they are not true believers.

Question 6

To back it up

Always endeavour to build myself up in and keep myself in (v 20-21),

contend for the faith (v3)

while watching out for the false teachers (v4)

their teachings that pupport to be spiritual, but are actually fruitless and pervert grace into licentiousness (v12-13, v4)

while watching out for the evidence in their lives that they are not true believers (v8-11, 16)

Question 7 : What are the possible Applications?

Plenty!

Build myself up in the faith : This can take various forms. Training myself in the various spiritual disciplines I think, would be a good start

Keeping myself in the faith : By never losing touch with God, and always chasing after Him

Contend earnestly for the faith : I think the best way to do this, would be to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, as well as to evangelise

Watching out for false teachers : I'm not sure what else we can do besides being vigilant, and always being discerning of whatever we read or hear.

Question 8 : What will you do?

Try to do the applications about building, keeping, and contending.

I've become consistent with my quiet time and the reading of the bible daily, I think the next step would be to work on my personal prayer life, so it becomes a habit as well, instead of something that I do only when I want to ask for blessings. I believe more frequent prayer also helps to keep one in touch with God.

I also want to live my life in such a way that people will instantly know that something is different about me (in a good way of course), and hence, that would be the opening salvo in the battle for their souls. So many aspects of that to work on! Shall take it one step at a time. Don't want to go into details :) WW can hold me accountable to that, right? :p

Terence